Morgan Palmer - A lifelong resident of Natick and Boston, died peacefully at the Newton-Wellesley Hospital on March 27, 2017 at the age of 83. Morgan was born in Boston on June 22, 1933, and was the only child of Mary Hunnewell Palmer and Franklin Hall Palmer. He grew up in Natick and Wellesley, attending Charles River School, Milton Academy, and Harvard College, from which he graduated in 1955. He received his MBA from the Harvard Business School in 1959. He served in Korea as a Lieutenant. In 1966, Morgan joined the New England Merchants National Bank. He was a Charted Financial Analyst and a member of the Boston Society of Security Analysts. After he retired, Morgan focused on his personal investments and trustee responsibilities, as well as his well-planned and generous philanthropic activities. He was a passionate supporter of many worthy causes in Massachusetts and beyond, with an emphasis on education, the environment, and the arts. A devoted son, he cared for his mother until her death at the age of 101. He had a lifelong interest in the preservation of his grandfather Henry Sargent Hunnewell’s estate in Wellesley and Natick, where he was particularly interested in the wildflowers that grow there. Morgan is survived by his first cousin Mary Bartlett Howe of Peterborough, NH, and the extended Hunnewell family, all of whom will miss his friendly and cheerful good nature.
A celebration of Morgan’s life will be held at St. Andrew’s Church, 79 Denton Rd., Wellesley, MA on Saturday, April 22, at 2PM, followed by a reception at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society at Elm Bank. Donations in his memory may be made to the Trustees of Reservations, 572 Essex Street, Beverly, MA 01915; Mount Auburn Cemetery, 580 Mount Auburn Street, Cambridge, MA 02138; or Milton Academy, 170 Center Street, Milton, MA 02186.